Saturday, January 18, 2014

Today’s guest author is Timothy Yohe, a
ghost tracker who writes for The Paranormal Blog. He shares a fascinating ghost
story and some creepy photos of a haunted hospital in Ohio.

Is
the Molly Stark Hospital in Ohio Truly Haunted?

An Investigation and Conclusions:

Anyone
travelling down Ravenna Road on the outskirts of East Canton, Ohio in
Nimishillen Township will see a landscape that resembles many of the small
towns which are interspersed throughout the state. A large percentage of these
towns have stories about spirit activity and unexplained phenomena which occur
within their rural boundaries. Limaville is no exception. It is an area filled
with small rolling hills and houses built for practicality, many erected around
the turn of the 20th century. But through the skeletal trees and
down a dusty road lies the questionably haunted grounds of the Molly Stark
Sanatorium.

A
Walk Down Memory Lane

The
hospital received its name from Elizabeth “Molly” Page, the wife of a
Revolutionary War soldier named John Stark. Stark was one of George
Washington’s generals known for his incredible insight and mastery of the
battlefield. Molly, born in 1737 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, married John in
1758, and together they had 11 children. In Dunbarton County, during John’s war
years, Molly opened up her already crowded home to take care of soldiers
suffering from small pox and other ailments. It was during this period that she
became well-known for her nursing efforts whose noble efforts travelled by word
of mouth with many of the troops she had cared for in her home. A group of
these soldiers eventually migrated into the Ohio area. It is through them, in
honor of the Stark family, where Stark County derives its name and where a
tubercular hospital was built in her honor (womenhistoryblog.com).

“On
August 23, 1929, Molly Stark Sanatorium opened its doors to the public,
providing care to residents…suffering from tuberculosis.” The hospital was
designed with balconies, verandahs, and lots of windows to offer its patients
plenty of fresh air and ample sunshine, the then believed treatment for their
illness. The worse off patients were kept on the second floor with the more
mobile ones on the first floor, allowing them access to the grounds filled with
nature. “In 1938, the Works Progress Administration installed nearly 1,200
linear feet of tunnels at the sanatorium”, which were meant to house the
utility infrastructure, but also became a means of travel underground between
buildings. Also, in 1956 and until 1995, the Molly Stark became a hospital for
other illnesses. The patients who were admitted here were the mentally ill,
those with drug and alcohol abuse and the elderly. Our investigation was
organized to focus on each of the three floors.

Cruising
out to Molly Stark with my brother-in-law stirred up conversation between us on
the rumors of incidents which some folks have claimed occurred at the site.
Although these incidents have not been documented or verified by experts, the
stories range from the physical presence of former patients looking out of the
windows, orbs of light appearing mostly on the second floor, and voices heard
echoing down the hallways and utility shafts. The hospital has never had any
formal tours conducted on its grounds throughout its entire history, so any
investigators were folks simply showing up and performing their own public
investigations. As we turned onto the loose gravel road leading to the
Spanish-style architecture building, I loaded my digital camera with the plan
to start shooting many photos of the outside perimeter in the hopes of
capturing the faces of patients I had heard could be staring out at us.

Someone’s
Watching Me

Since Molly Stark Sanatorium
was built with many windows, there were lots of opportunities to capture
possible apparitions. After reviewing the many photos taken we were able to set
aside a few questionable ones, which appeared to reveal faces and upper bodies.
Most of them we were able to debunk as either objects inside the room, smears
or physical contamination on the window, or abstract lighting. The one we
earmarked was done so because we were able to rule out these variables with
this apparent apparition and still could not explain the figure to be anything
other than someone peering out the window at us. It was indeed an exciting
moment!

Photos of the balconies and
verandahs generally revealed nothing except for one shot of the far left
archway on the front of the hospital closer to the east wing. In our original photo
an orb was revealed in the darker area at the top just to the left of the
keystone (the photo below is a current picture used for comparison).

The darker photo shown above
is from another photographer shooting the same area, and ironically you can see
an area of the wall which appears to reveal an orb. There is no architectural
structure in this spot – so draw your own conclusions. It does seem that Molly
Stark is very consistent with light anomalies in its balconies and verandahs, just
as we had heard rumored. It may very well be that these bursts of energy
originate from patients who died at the hospital, as they would have been
housed on the second floor.

What’s
That Sound?

During our investigation of the end wall of the east wing
we discovered a large hole which looked like a ventilation shaft, fitted with a
domed cover. Two members of our team, one female and one male, took turns
speaking loudly into the vent. After several attempts we were able to discern 2
responses coming from within the shaft. One response sounded like a “yes” when
the question was asked, “Is there anyone there?” The other response sounded
like an airy grunt when asked, “What is your name?” We did not carry any sound
recording devices with us, so these voices are undocumented personal
experiences. At this point we were convinced that Molly Stark Sanatorium is
quite active and so I began a search for an entrance into the complex.

Who’s
There???

After walking down the back
side of the east wing, we came to a juncture where the west wing began. Here
there was a window which appeared to have been completely removed and hadn’t
been boarded up like all the other ground level entrances. I climbed into a
very small room which looked more like it had been used for storage purposes
when the hospital had been open. The single door out led me into a hallway
filled with debris along with odds and ends furniture. Although the lighting
was dimmer in the building, I could still clearly see the elevator doors off to
the left, which made the hairs on my arms stand up. As I continued shooting
photos while walking down the hallway, I began to hear faint movement on the
steps just down near the end. The closer I got to those steps the more intense
the alarms starting going off in my head that there was more than one entity
approaching. I have always been sensitive to paranormal activity and so I used
this as another tool of investigation. And at this point my instincts screamed
at me to get out! And so I did very quickly.

Our
Thoughts

The investigation of
Molly Stark Sanatorium proved to be more active than we expected. All of the
rumors I had heard throughout my childhood turned out to be generally true. We
do not believe that any of the figures or entities seen or felt in this
hospital are of a malevolent nature. After all, Molly herself was a wonderfully
caring person and it would certainly seem that the sanatorium named after her
followed suit in nature. “[In] April of 2009…the old Molly Stark property [was]
[p]urchased from the Stark County Commissioners for the sum of one dollar” and
has been made into a county park. The building is set for demolition sometime
in the near future. I only wish that any souls trapped within this hospital
could be freed to move on. But then again, what nicer place could one roam -
filled with sunshine, fresh air, and a deep rooted history!

Hello! I am an aspiring
writer who is in the midst of making a mid-life career change. Although I love
to express my culinary talents, I have an even greater passion to teach our
youth. I have a deep fascination with the pioneering field of the paranormal
and the influx of science to explain the visible and invisible worlds. When I’m
not working or writing, I am an active family man, enjoy cycling and hiking
through nature, and sipping a glass of cabernet with my wife. My future goals
are writing blogs, short stories, books, and novels along
with living a simple, non-materialistic life

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Book reviewers
and fans have been posting some wonderful reviews for my latest novel THE DEVIL'SWOODS. You can read the reviews below:

"Five★★★★★stars
for The Devil’s Woods! ... I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Brian
Moreland, but in my opinion, this is his best work so far ... Draw the shades,
lock all of the doors, curl up in a blanket and read The Devil’s Woods."

“Brian
Moreland’s fiction is taut and spellbinding, often blending varied themes to
form a dark genre very much his own. From his WWII occult thriller Shadows in the Mist, to the haunting
chiller The Devil’s Woods, Brian’s
work is at once versatile, original, and deeply engaging.”

—Greg F. Gifune,
author of The Bleeding Season

-----------

The Devil’s Woods
“...has more twists and turns than a minotaur’s labyrinth – just when you think
you’re figuring out what’s going on, another development has the story going in
a completely different – often very surprising – direction ... The Crowgrrl
highly recommends it – this book definitely gets all 5 of 5 Black Feathers!”

"There are
plenty of jumps and scares along the way, with a nice dose of carnage to keep
even the staunchest of gore-hounds happy. This is indeed prime, grade-A horror
writing. THE DEVIL’S WOODS is a great book and every horror fiction fan should
definitely pick it up."

"The Devil's Woods is a force of nature.
A complex, chilling foray into the darkness of a forbidden land, and man's
tortured soul."

—Hunter Shea, author
of Swamp Monster Massacre and Sinister Entity

"In
Dead
of Winter, Brian Moreland showed why he's one of the strongest new
forces in horror fiction. In The Devil's Woods, he proves he's
as versatile as he is talented. The Devil's Woods is fantastic--a
terrifying and emotionally-involving read from cover to cover."

—Jonathan Janz,
author of The Sorrows and House of Skin

----------

"The novel
I've been waiting all year to come out THE DEVIL'S WOODS by Brian Moreland is
here! ... I know you all will LOVE this book. It has elements of Native
American/First People legends (and modern-day reservation locale and
characters), eerie woods, history, supernatural, romance, redemption and
revenge, and the good versus evil battle!! What I like most about Brian’s books
is that his hero/heroine always shines through. His main character of Kyle has
stayed with me in my head and I’ve dealt with an urge to beg Brian to give me
another story featuring Kyle. I loved that character, I bet you will
also."

"The
Devil’s Woods is a damned impressive little
horror novel. Reader’s looking for a well realized and well executed
supernatural mystery with some slasher elements and an action-packed climax
should pick up Moreland’s newest release from Samhain Publishing.

"Brian
Moreland has created a new horror classic bursting with bloodshed, chaos, and
truly disturbing creatures. Prepare to travel down a dark, terrifying, and
twisted path that is The Devil's Woods.
Backwoods horror at its finest!"

—David Bernstein,
author of Damaged Souls and Amongst the Dead

"Reading
anything by Brian Moreland makes me understand how much harder I have to work
as a writer to generate the level of chills he can deliver."

—Kristopher Rufty,
author of The Lurkers and Prank Night

THE DEVIL'S
WOODS is now available in paperback and eBook at Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, iBooks, iTunes, and
wherever books are sold.

Now Available

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Deutsche Buche: Schattenkrieger

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About Me

Welcome!
Thanks for visiting. I'm a fiction writer who lives in Texas in the wonderful city of Dallas. I write supernatural horror. I enjoy mixing genres with history, romance, mystery, and nail-biting, dark suspense. My novels are DEAD OF WINTER, SHADOWS IN THE MIST, THE DEVIL'S WOODS, and novellas THE WITCHING HOUSE, DARKNESS RISING, and THE VAGRANTS. When not writing, I enjoy world travel, hiking, kayaking, reading, movies, and watching sports. My mission is to entertain and thrill millions of readers around the world.